HOME | DD

Description
It starts with the brother. I've said before that Drum only has sisters but I was wrong. She had one brother, the oldest and the heir. He was to be married and all, the young prince, to a young Lady, Lucinda. But then one day, while out hunting with a few of his companions and , of course, his guards, he went missing. His men came back, and much later, his own horse, Without it's rider. There was a huge search for the Prince, half the kingdom searched with the King roaring and riding the hardest. The kings advizeres supposed he'd gotten lost in the great woods, which was easy to do. Drum knew her Brother would not be so stupid to first wander, then get lost in the great woods. He knew the stories better than she, for he was the one who told them to her.
It was the stable boy, caring for the prince's returned stallion, who found the horses saddle bags filled with blood and in one, a brooch with blood clotting in the filigree. A brooch with the royal emblem.
The search became a recovery expedition.
The king was not part of this. He just sat on his throne, listless, son-less, clutching the cleaned brooch in one closed fist while his wives and daughters crooned and cried around him. Drum tried this,then decided it was better to sit and wait at the window with their book, the one he would read to his sister as she sat on his lap, often with Lucinda beside him. He would always do the voices of the witches and trolls and Kings and heroes while his other love provided the voices of the fair maidens that were always rescued by the end of the tale. But there were no more stories and Lucinda didn't come to see her anymore.

It was dark then, bad times. People would go missing, not many, only few a month but the numbers mounted. The people were worried and these murmurs became cries and cries became out roar and the king heard nothing. His thoughts were dim and only of the brooch he wore on his breast and the child that should be wearing it. His daughters and wives heard nothing, they were happy enough in their many rooms, easily disconnected from the world outside. Drum heard it but softly, as if muffled by cloth.
The staff were careless with their talk around the child, who even at 13, was quite unnoticeable, especially since the child had turned mute. It had been that way since the Prince's death, though no one had noted this. She had done this in hopes of having her brother returned. In her books, one girl had stopped speaking in order to break a curse on her brothers, who had all been turned into crows. If she spoke, they would be crows forever. It was a big sacrifice, drum had thought, but was it big enough for now? This instance? She thought she would try.
And people talked more around a dumb child.
She also learnt that, using her brother's almanac and the library, the amount of people going missing was rising. In growing numbers, all leading to the summer solstice.

It was 14 days to midsummer when he arrived and he came wearing her brothers clothes. Drum wasn't sure that her father knew, he noticed little now and her sisters and stepmothers certainly didn't, they only noticed the clothes on their own bodies. He never gave them a name but people who spoke of the newcomer knew him.
They had lived next to him their whole lives after all.
Hi hair was white and long at the front like a woman's but at the back it was shaved and Drum was unsure whether the curved patterns and runes that decorated the skin was tattoo or veins. The pale hair seemed to float without wind. His eyes were dark and his smile was curved and sharp like a knife. And just where the eyes creased and where the mouth met the nose, grew moss, green and moist. Moss that every woman in the court, in the back of their minds, longed to touch.
His skin was white but Drum knew, if you cut the skin, pierced the white, green would flow out. Not blood but leaf, pouring out bud by bud. He looked like a man but he wasn't.
Gods often appeared that way in stories.

More of my kingdom story, if you remember it.
All mine fellows.

Description
It starts with the brother. I've said before that Drum only has sisters but I was wrong. She had one brother, the oldest and the heir. He was to be married and all, the young prince, to a young Lady, Lucinda. But then one day, while out hunting with a few of his companions and , of course, his guards, he went missing. His men came back, and much later, his own horse, Without it's rider. There was a huge search for the Prince, half the kingdom searched with the King roaring and riding the hardest. The kings advizeres supposed he'd gotten lost in the great woods, which was easy to do. Drum knew her Brother would not be so stupid to first wander, then get lost in the great woods. He knew the stories better than she, for he was the one who told them to her.
It was the stable boy, caring for the prince's returned stallion, who found the horses saddle bags filled with blood and in one, a brooch with blood clotting in the filigree. A brooch with the royal emblem.
The search became a recovery expedition.
The king was not part of this. He just sat on his throne, listless, son-less, clutching the cleaned brooch in one closed fist while his wives and daughters crooned and cried around him. Drum tried this,then decided it was better to sit and wait at the window with their book, the one he would read to his sister as she sat on his lap, often with Lucinda beside him. He would always do the voices of the witches and trolls and Kings and heroes while his other love provided the voices of the fair maidens that were always rescued by the end of the tale. But there were no more stories and Lucinda didn't come to see her anymore.

It was dark then, bad times. People would go missing, not many, only few a month but the numbers mounted. The people were worried and these murmurs became cries and cries became out roar and the king heard nothing. His thoughts were dim and only of the brooch he wore on his breast and the child that should be wearing it. His daughters and wives heard nothing, they were happy enough in their many rooms, easily disconnected from the world outside. Drum heard it but softly, as if muffled by cloth.
The staff were careless with their talk around the child, who even at 13, was quite unnoticeable, especially since the child had turned mute. It had been that way since the Prince's death, though no one had noted this. She had done this in hopes of having her brother returned. In her books, one girl had stopped speaking in order to break a curse on her brothers, who had all been turned into crows. If she spoke, they would be crows forever. It was a big sacrifice, drum had thought, but was it big enough for now? This instance? She thought she would try.
And people talked more around a dumb child.
She also learnt that, using her brother's almanac and the library, the amount of people going missing was rising. In growing numbers, all leading to the summer solstice.

It was 14 days to midsummer when he arrived and he came wearing her brothers clothes. Drum wasn't sure that her father knew, he noticed little now and her sisters and stepmothers certainly didn't, they only noticed the clothes on their own bodies. He never gave them a name but people who spoke of the newcomer knew him.
They had lived next to him their whole lives after all.
Hi hair was white and long at the front like a woman's but at the back it was shaved and Drum was unsure whether the curved patterns and runes that decorated the skin was tattoo or veins. The pale hair seemed to float without wind. His eyes were dark and his smile was curved and sharp like a knife. And just where the eyes creased and where the mouth met the nose, grew moss, green and moist. Moss that every woman in the court, in the back of their minds, longed to touch.
His skin was white but Drum knew, if you cut the skin, pierced the white, green would flow out. Not blood but leaf, pouring out bud by bud. He looked like a man but he wasn't.
Gods often appeared that way in stories.

More of my kingdom story, if you remember it.
All mine fellows.